Squadron Leader Edwin Rowland Moon
Royal Air Force (Ex-RNAS)
29/04/1920
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DSO and Bar
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1914-15 Star
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Chevalier, Legion
of Honour
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Born in 1886 at Southampton. Son of Catherine Esther
Butt, and Edwin George Wade Moon.
Drowned following an air crash off the Essex coast,
aged 33 years
He was a prisoner of war and he was twice
awarded a DSO and recommended for the Victoria Cross.
He enlisted in the Royal Naval Air Service with the
rank of Flight Sub-Lieutenant, and he saw service in
East Africa, where he was based on HMS Hyacinth.
In 1917, he was on a reconnaissance flight
with Cdr. Richard Bridgeman as observer. They were forced
to land with engine trouble and came down in a creek
of the Rufiji River delta where they destroyed the seaplane
to avoid the possibility of its being captured by the
enemy. After several days wandering in the delta trying
to avoid capture and trying to rejoin their ship, they
then constructed a raft from the window frame of a house
and after two days of drifting on the raft were swept
out to sea. On the morning of 9 January, where Cdr.
Bridgeman, who was not a strong swimmer, died of exhaustion
and exposure, Moon tried to keep Bridgman on the raft
but he slipped off into the sea. After Moon had been
on the raft for some thirteen hours the tide turned
and the raft was thrown on to the shore. He was rescued
by natives who handed him over to the Germans, who interred
him in a prisoner of war camp. He was released from
captivity on 21 November 1917.
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Edwin Moon received the following
awards; The Royal Humane Society silver medal
- awarded for attempts to save the life of Flag
Commander, Cdr. The Hon. R Bridgman's life while
the two were clinging to a crude raft in East
African coastal waters on the 6 to 9 January 1917.
The Distinguished Service Order
and bar - for flying operations against the enemy
in German East Africa; 1914 - 1915 Star; British
War Medal; Inter-allied Victory Medal with oak
palm; The Legion of Honour - Croix de Chevalier
- conferred by the President of the French Republic
on Squadron Commander, Edwin Rowland Moon, DSO,
RNAS.
He drowned following an air crash
off Felixstowe, Kent, England, aged 33.
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